I just finished reading the article "Make Way for Wikis". It brings up a good point about the reliability of Wikipedia and its many contributors. Despite that I find it useful (as all encyclopedias) for finding keywords to further my search. Also on the bottom if the information is viable it often has a bibliography attached and this list of resources can often be worth a look.


As far as our library goes, I think a wiki on Somerset history would be beneficial. We have resources here, at the historical society and several amateur historians and genealogists. Gathering their information would be a real benefit to our community.


Personally I don't like contributing to Wikipedia. As a librarian I would want to cite specific sources if I added any information. That would take more time than I have right now.

I found editing the wiki fairly easy...it is another thing we are learning that requires practice. For me, and everyone, it is making the time to do that. I think my biggest question would be integrating the wiki into an existing website to make it seemless and cohesive. How do we integrate all these tools in to existing places?

I think staff would be capable to work within a wiki. I wonder if they would use it and if it would better our communication with each other. Even on a small staff, there are communication hurdles. The other thing I wonder is if we had one, would everyone be able to use it? I already hear comments about not having time to check email. It makes me wonder how easily re-trained we would all be. Email is not going to go away!

I think depending on the user, the wiki would be a way to go. I see it as a great tool for committees or groups to participate with. It would also be a good way to get suggestions and hear what the community thinks. I do think it would have to be done with the right subject. I would be uncomfortable putting together an information source for people to use if potentially poor information shows up on it. We kind of scorn wikipedia for the fact that you can go in and change it. Even though the potential for great things are there.

I have tried to launch a wiki for my trustees. It is a challenge getting them to use it! Or view it everyday. I will keep trying. It is easier to update that (and less confusing) then send them mass emails in order to schedule a meeting, or keep them informed during budget season. I think a wiki would be a good tool for discussions; maybe a way to launch an online book discussion. And certainly, I would like to get opinions on programming or services that maybe we aren't offering now.

I think that people want to be able to access everything right from their computer. I dont think this trend will go away. I think the library needs to follow that trend. I also think that home use can be measured in someway as to its effectiveness, and if is being used. That can translate into circulation stastics and money in the future.

Once I got over the fact that the wiki toolbar did not look like the blog dashboard (another "what am I looking at?" moment) I had more fun with the editing. I find that at this point in the class I am recovering from visual overwhelm more quickly.

I think our staff and our library users can handle a wiki.

The wiki for Trustees and a local history wiki are very good ideas.

I think it would be great to have a community wiki to plan the library's float for the Hyannis 4th of July Parade.

Carol DeLuca

Editing the wiki was not difficult at all. I followed the directions given and was able to edit easily. Since I am the only staff member in the library, I would use the wiki to communicate with patrons and faculty. I think that most of our users could do this. A good reason to launch a wiki for my library would be to attract students and teachers who love books and enjoy reading. If I were to create a wiki, it would be a "favorite books" wiki. Here students and faculty could list their favorite titles and write a brief review.

Debbie W.

I had no problem editing the SEMLS sandbox wiki. The directions were clear and even posting a photo was doable. I wasn't comfortable trying to edit the other wikis I visited. I do think that wikis are very good for collaborative work. At a children's librarian's meeting someone mentioned pooling our story time info on a wiki. Now I know what she meant, and it is a very good idea. We could all contribute our favorite themes with the books, songs, crafts, etc. that make up each program.


The article, Make Way for Wikis, shows how useful they can be in a school setting, especially to encourage writing skills.


I agree with Jocelyn that committees and groups would fiind wikis a great way to collaborate. Using a wiki for collecting local history is a wonderful idea, Chris.

I had no trouble editing/adding to the Wiki. It was easy and the instructions were clear. I can see several applications in the library world. I'm thinking of our book club for children grades 3to 5 this summer. I think that kids would really get into this as a way of communicating with each other about the books they are reading. I'd like to try it! I also can see this working for subject guides. It's another way to involve people and make libraries a conversation about ideas rather than just a place for storing materials.

I have seen wikis used as web sites. Is this possible? The one I'm thinking of is http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.hph/Main_Page They offer a free membership to post comments. In the archives field there has been some talk that wikis can

be used to allow someone with some expertise add a comment to a manuscript collection finding aids, like a scholar who has studied the literary papers, but I can't figure out if this is advantageous or not, or how it would be accomplished, now that I have become more familiar with these tools.

Someone questioned how to integrate the wiki into an existing website. That is a question I have also. I feel like I need another course just to learn how to create and integrate the wiki.-Debbie W.

I am enjoying the Learning 2.0 class. I feel like I've learned so much, but at the same time, I'm a little overwhelmed with all of the information. I know I still have a lot to learn and would like to continue using some of these applications when this course is over.

-Debbie W.

I love the idea of using wikis for sharing storytime ideas. Another idea is sharing storyteller info. It would be good to be able to link all the storytellers and performers in one spot.

Debbie, I feel overwhelmed at times, too. I would benefit from repeating this course in the future. Kathy, is this allowed?

The staff found out this week that maintenence of the Hyannis Library's website will be passed from a volunteer to us. Sherry has experience with websites so the big responsibility will be on her. However, I hope that I will be able to use what I have learned to help her.

Carol

I'm glad to see so many of you played around with inserting images with the wiki assignment this week. The great thing about using a Sandbox is that you don't have to worry about messing up since we're the only ones who will be seeing it.

I just have a few things to contribute to this week's discussion. The first point (which I think I mentioned in one of the chats) is that although it is very easy to edit a wiki, the real difficulty lies in setting up the navigation so that it is intuitive and easy for all of your users to figure out. I've seen people set up a wiki without starting it off with any navigation or links. People will be unlikely to contribute to this wiki because they won't know where to put things. Or, several different people will try to set up their own navigation that are at odds with each other. I've also seen wikis where it's just hard to figure out where everything is located. So a lot of thought needs to go into the organization of the wiki before you start a project.

There were some comments about using a wiki to promote communication with staff and/or trustees. I had a conversation with a librarian several months ago who talked about the blog his library had started to share news with staff. But staff often did not check the blog, and it wound up being printed out and left on the circ desk so that everyone could read it. I'm sure wikis would face the same kind of obstacles. I just added the following link to my semls20 Delicious bookmarks today:

http://www.cmswatch.com/Feature/190-Wiki-Myths

It talks about the high expectations businesses have for wikis changing the work culture, but that these expectations are rarely met. I think a wiki is a great idea for sharing information, but a lot of work also needs to go into changing workflows so that people check the wiki or learn to use RSS readers so that they can be notified when updates are made to the wiki. I once did an RSS workshop for a group of trustees at a library where the director was sharing updates via a blog. I'm not really sure how much success she had in getting her trustees to start tracking her updates that way. In your case, Jocelyn, you may want to try using Feedburner on your wiki's RSS feed and enabling the e-mail subscription option. Trustees would thenl have the option of getting those updates via e-mail. It really provides the best of both worlds: you can continue updating information in a way that's easiest for you, but they can continue to get updates in their preferred method of communication.

I have never thought of wikis as the best tool to integrate into an existing Web site. Instead, it's usually something you link to off of your site.

Traditionally, wikis have been a tool that focuses on content rather than design, so it is very difficult to carry the look and feel of your site over to your wiki. Of the free wikis I've tried, I would say Zoho has the best options for customizing the look so that it can look a little like your existing Web site. I did a little searching around on this topic and found that PBWiki (now PBWorks) used to have something called a wikilet that allowed you to republish wiki information on your Web site, similar to the Flickr badges or Delicious Linkrolls we saw in previous lessons. However, it doesn't look like it is available in the current version of PBWiki. I'm not aware of other wikis that provide a similar feature, but there may be some out there.

Judy's example of the Mary Ferrell Foundation wiki shows that you can really develop a Web site out of a wiki. I'm guessing they are using software installed on their own server. The free, hosted services don't allow you to do that much customization.

Since there have been a lot of questions about integration throughout this class, I'll try to pull together a separate handout that lists ways to do this for each of the tools we've covered. I try to mention it in the lessons, but it is sometimes nice to have all of the information pulled together in one place.

Deadlines will be pushed back next week because of the holiday. Have a nice long weekend!

Kathy

Editing the wiki was easy enough. Thank you for starting us out with the "favorites" lists. That was less daunting tthan facing an entire document. I did have to look around for the various keys; thank you for the detailed instructions!

Our library has a staff intranet. We have just added 4 tools: wiki, blog, forum, photo collection. We have been training staff to use those tools. As far as the wiki is concerned, we have added a lot of cataloging documentation and info from a Circ Desk "rolodex."--arranged alphabetically by topic. We expect that the Circ and Ref staff members will be adding to it frequently.

We have tried to use the wiki for collaborating/editing the library newsletter. (No, we haven't gone to a blog yet.) For this recent issue, it was "too early in the game" for all the team members to "wiki." But we sure do see how it could be useful!!! Lots of e-mail edits going back and forth.

I found the readings to be very interesting. Catching up on the "history" was neat. And to know that "wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian was a good bit of trivia info to add to my memory. (Some medical librarians have been in Hawaii this week for the annual conference; I bet they didn't learn about the word "wiki!!" Yes, not a good year for a meeting in Hawaii--plans made several years ahead...)

I found the discussion among librarians about the pros and cons of wikis to be interesting. I wonder if many have changed their minds now almost 4 years later?

But Jimmy Wales' comment about wikipedia as a "teaching opportunity" was fascinating to me! Certainly we want to teach about reliable resources and critical review of internet resources--so certainly Wikipedia is a great example for that! "Writing skills and social skills, and group consensus"??? I'm not sure users are thinking that "grandly." (We're still trying to get students to realize that "googling" is not the best research strategy--especially in medicine!!)

The examples of possible uses for wikis were interesting, and I enjoyed having a list of library wikis to sample. The University of Minnesota's wiki for staff communication and project collaboration was the most relevant example for my situation, but the others were very interesting.

Being able to "keep up" with a wiki on a daily basis would be a challenge, but would be ideal for documentation, procedures, collaboration on documents.

Another good week of "learning." Thanks!

I agree that "workflow" needs to change in order for anyone to use a wiki efficiently. So much is changing so fast these days, that it can be difficult to remember to use all the "new tools." I have to put a reminder in my electronic calendar to look at certain resources regularly. (I really have trouble with my RSS feeds.)

For our staff intranet blog, the system generates an e-mail message when a new posting has been made. And that would help me with my RSS feeds too. I was glad to learn about Feedburner in one of our previous lessons.

We are trying to think of a wiki as a place to store documentation, etc that may need to be updated regularly. I am going to post our employee handbook, our disaster plan and our promotion plan to the wiki. (They are a real pain to update!) We are thinking of the blog as a place to share info with all staff that we want to keep long-term. (New school travel policy.) The "old" staff e-mail list is for things that are of short-term interest/importance: "Has anyone seen this book?" "Get time sheets in early this week." etc.

Our staff forum will be for soliciting feedback--maybe it's between a wiki and a blog? The photo collection is for getting the hundreds of photos out of online files--keeping the good ones, dropping the fuzzy one, adding tags and captions ("When was this taken, anyway? Who is that?") to assure long term value and usefulness.

More "food for thought!"

I just created a Wiki on pbworks for our staff as a way to enchance communication - particularly important with part-time staff. This should be fun!

I enjoyed learning about Wikis this week, although I feel like I am just a little bit behind everyone. The articles this week were very good and offered some interesting examples of how people use wiki's.

My supervisor at one of my jobs wants to create a wiki where the people in our department will post their job descriptions and directions for some of the things we do. It can be changed as needed and if a new person comes on board or if somebody is out for an extended time the others can go to the wiki for guidance. It can also be used to share our experiences at conferences and workshops. The wiki format offers so many possibilities, some which we haven't thought of yet.

I don't find the video helpful; I find the format "too breezy". Maybe it's just me.

I'm sorry that I missed the discussion this week and hope that I can make the next one.

I like the Wiki for the class. The dashboard is extremely helpful! I had trouble with the wiki for the assignment just getting my head around it. I did add favorite movies and music.

I think it it a good tool to use for communication, because everyone can have a say.